Saving Grant Ward

Chapter Thirty-Nine

A/N: Hey, so I'm not going to write out every episode, especially in the first half of the season, so we're starting a little after the 084 episode. Also, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Food Network, a show called Chopped comes up in this chapter, which is basically a really awesome cooking show where four people start and one gets eliminated each round until there's a winner.

*****************

Things between Grant and I actually did stay more or less the same. It just about killed me to watch him go in on a mission for one of Coulson's former protege's with Skye and not me, but I survived and so did he, despite terrible seduction skills.

Skye and Grant's relationship took a little bit of a dive when we found her covering for and sleeping with her Rising Tide boyfriend, and as upset as I was, I also felt a bit relieved... weird, right?

Simmons got infected with a deadly disease, which was terrible, and Grant jumped out of the plane to save her. I was equal parts mad that their lives were unnecessarily risked and happy that Grant had bonded so well with another team member.

The bonding party continued when Fitz and Grant went on an op together, just the two of them, no support team, just like Grant and I used to do. I'll admit, I just about punched a hole in a wall when I found out I was being left behind on that mission. I wanted to kill Jessica Hand. On the bright side though, Fitz and Grant came back closer than ever, and I know Fitz looks at Grant like a brother now. Grant won't admit it, but I'm confident he feels the same way.

Anyway, after watching Fitz and Skye go on solo missions with Grant, I learned one thing: working back-end sucks.

I told Coulson as much, and hopefully he'd keep me and Grant teamed up as much as possible in the future. But for now, we weren't running any two-man ops. We were stuck on cleanup duty.

Thor and his buddies had stopped some alien evil-doer and created heaps upon heaps of mess for SHIELD to sort through in the process. It had been a long day of sorting though junk to find one or two tiny pieces of alien metal.

Worth it, but boring all the same.

I couldn't wait to get back to the Bus and relax.

****************

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

"WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?" yelled Grant, leaning forward in his seat in distress.

"What is going on in here?" asked Skye, coming around the corner of the Bus' lounge area.

Grant shook his head, too disgusted to speak as he leaned back against the couch, so I explained to Skye.

"We're watching Chopped and it's the dessert round and the guy we've been cheering for just decided to use the ice cream machine."

"What?"

"It always goes wrong," I added.

"It's like these people don't even watch the show," agreed Grant angrily, "I can't think of a single damn time the ice cream machine worked, and these people decide they still want to stake the entire competition on it."

I put my hand on Grant's shoulder. "I know. I know."

Skye was looking at us like we were crazy. "I thought you said you were going to try and relax?"

"This is relaxing," Grant and I answered at the same time.

I grinned and turned to Grant. "I'm so proud. I have completely corrupted you. Do you remember when you wouldn't even watch this show with me because you thought it was stupid?"